This unusual offering table has a storage section in the front with a small door painted with the Seven Secondary Possessions of the Universal Monarch (chakravartin): robes, throne, palace, and garden in the center; flanked on the left by the flaming sword and snakeskin, and on the right by the royal boots. An ornate metal locking hasp secures the door. On the golden roof of the palace is a Buddhist Wheel of the Law (dharmachakra) flanked by a pair of reverential confronting deer. Honorific fly whisks made from the white tail-hairs of a yak (cauri or chowri) and banners wave above the wheel. On either side of the door and along the bottom are flaming wish-fulfilling jewels, symbolic of the Three Jewels (triratna) of Buddhism: the Buddha (the enlightened one), the Dharma (the teachings and path to enlightenment), and the Sangha (the community of practitioners). The precious gems rise from scrolling clouds. The front edge of the topboard has lotus petals in alternating red and green paint with gold outlines. See Robert Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Boston: Shambala Publications, 1999), p. 165, pl. 79; and David Kamansky, ed., Wooden Wonders: Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life (Pasadena: Pacific Asia Museum and Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2004), pp. 216-217, no. 40. See also M.2010.78.1, M.2010.80.2, and M.2010.84.
